Highlights Archives
Early Madison Firefighting Remembered
After two frightful downtown fires, Madison's first mayor, Jairus C. Fairchild, proclaimed in his 1856 inaugural address that the city needed to be better prepared to fight such blazes. Within months the city bought two hand-pumped fire engines as well as land on State and Webster streets for two fire companies, Challenge Engine Company No. 1 and Madison Fire Company No. 2. Over the next 20 years, several more volunteer companies were founded in Madison. The Wisconsin Historical Museum remembers these companies and continues its celebration of Madison's sesquicentennial with its latest exhibit, We Hurry to the Rescue: The Early Years of Madison Firefighting. This exhibit is slated to run from August 1 through October 7, 2006.
We Hurry to the Rescue features material from seven of the volunteer fire companies formed between 1856 and 1874. These items include helmets, trumpets, decorative belts, lanterns, badges, tools, and historical images. The most spectacular items are two newly conserved silk flags commissioned in 1857 and 1869 by Fire Company No. 2. (The 1857 flag — museum object #1951.288 — is pictured above.) Badly in need of repair, Fire Fighters Local 311 recently came to the flags' rescue, finding the money to stabilize and preserve these delicate textiles. This exhibit welcomes back the newly conserved flags and gives the public a chance to see these important and beautiful objects for the first time in nearly 100 years.
The fire companies represented in the exhibit include the following:
Challenge Engine Company No. 1
William H. Holt organized Challenge Company on April 10, 1856, making it the first fire company in the city of Madison. Located on South Webster Street, the company changed its name to Mendota Engine Company within a year. Around 1870 the company moved to University Avenue, and in the late 1870s it disbanded. Since the city had acquired two steamer engines by that time, there was not much need for hand-pumped engines anymore.
Madison Fire Company No. 2
Prominent German residents organized Madison's second fire company in June 1856, and it served as a social and business organization for the German community. When the E.W. Keyes Steam Engine Company formed in 1866, Company No. 2's hand-pumped engine became obsolete, and the company disbanded in December of that year. A new group of firemen still operated the older engine as Madison Fire Company No. 2 and eventually sold it to Sauk City. After the new Company No. 2 was reformed as the Andrew Proudfit Engine Company in 1870, the city bought the company its own steam pumper.
Capital Hook and Ladder Company No. 1
A group of young men formed a hook and ladder company independent of the Madison Fire Department in September 1857. Seven months later their $685 truck arrived in Madison. It came equipped with five ladders, the longest of which was 48 feet. Originally stored in a building on Webster Street, the truck was stationed at City Hall from 1866 to 1877. In 1877 the company moved into a new station on Monona Avenue (now Martin Luther King Drive).
E.W. Keyes Steam Engine Company No. 1
In 1866 Madison Mayor Elisha W. Keyes, against the advice of Fire Chief William H. Holt, pushed the city council to replace hand-pumped engines with more up-to-date steam engines. The first new engine arrived in December and was housed at the Webster Street station. It required 50 men to pull it through the streets. Four years later these men were replaced with two horses. In 1893 the city changed the name of the company to Hose Company No. 1.
Andrew Proudfit Engine Company No. 2
Named after the mayor then in office, the Andrew Proudfit Company evolved out of the second version of Madison Fire Company No. 2 and maintained the former company's German-based membership. Like the E.W. Keyes Company, the Andrew Proudfit Company received a city-purchased steam engine. Once the engine arrived, the company had a rousing celebration with beer, rye bread and sausage. Mayor Proudfit's speech at the party was so successful that "the boys" swore by him, "even if he did not hail from Germany."
S.U. Pinney Supply Hose Company No. 1
The purpose of the Pinney Company, organized in 1874 and named after Mayor Silas U. Pinney, was to bring and lay out all the hose needed at a fire. Once Madison built a waterworks in 1882, pumper engines were not as necessary, and hose companies became the most powerful in the city. The Pinney Company's engines originally were housed at City Hall, but in the early 1880s they were moved to Webster Street. In 1893 the city changed the name of the company to Hose Company No. 3.
William H. Rogers Hook and Ladder Company No. 1
In 1885 Capital Hook and Ladder became the last fire company to be absorbed into the Madison Fire Department. Six years later the city bought a new $2,400 horse-drawn truck for the company and, at the same time, changed its name to William H. Rogers Hook and Ladder Company No. 1.
For historical images relating to Madison firefighting, visit the Wisconsin Historical Society's collection of online images.
:: Posted August 2, 2006
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